


Scattered Light

by frozensea



Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Banter, Ben Solo Needs A Hug, Force Bond (Star Wars), Implied Psychological Trauma, Multi, Resistance Spy Ben Solo, Swearing, Undercover
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-26
Updated: 2020-10-26
Packaged: 2021-03-08 19:35:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 10,841
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27201892
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/frozensea/pseuds/frozensea
Summary: The muscles in Ben's jaw shifted, and Poe honestly couldn't tell if he wanted to laugh or bite his head off.“Can't you be serious for five damn minutes?” he growled.“I am perfectly serious. You were a lot more fun when you were regularly getting laid.”“This is not productive.”
Relationships: Ben Solo | Kylo Ren/Rey/Finn/Poe Dameron
Comments: 9
Kudos: 8
Collections: Fic In A Box





	Scattered Light

**Author's Note:**

  * For [lucymonster](https://archiveofourown.org/users/lucymonster/gifts).



Unkar Plutt looked at the masked man in front of him and tried to figure out how much trouble had just walked through the door. He was tall and muscular and carried himself with a confidence that had been forged on the battlefield. This man was sure of his abilities. Not someone to cross without consequences.  
  
The young man beside him was a different matter. Long black hair framed a face that had not yet learned to hide the emotions of its bearer. His eyes were too soft, his lips too full, the slightly lopsided line of it pressed together in discomfort. He looked defiant, but rather in the moody, blustering way of youth than the hardened manner of experience.  
  
“Five thousand credits,” Plutt said.  
  
The masked man tilted his head. “That's a hefty price for a slip of a girl.”  
  
The door on the other end of the room cracked open. Hardin, Plutt's enforcer, sidled through the gap and nodded at him. Plutt straightened. The unease that had taken hold of him since the strangers had appeared abated. Hardin had gathered reinforcements, which meant that a dozen mercenaries were waiting just beyond the door to back him up.  
  
“The girl is my best scavenger. Her loss will set me back,” he said with a mournful expression.  
  
“May we make a counteroffer?” the masked man asked politely.  
  
There was something off about him. Plutt had the sudden impression of storm clouds gathering above his head. “'Course you may, but I'm not telling you where to find her for less than that.”  
  
“How about you tell us where she is and we will let you live?”  
  
 _Oh, he was that sort, was he?_ Plutt exchanged a look with Hardin. _Well, if he wanted a fight, he could have one._  
  
“Bold of you to think you can come to my town and take what isn't yours,” he sneered. Reaching down, he found the grip of the blaster rifle he kept secured beneath his desk. “I think I need to teach you some manners.”  
  
He jerked the rifle up and aimed it at the man's face, just as the door burst open and the mercenaries poured in.  
  
The men didn't seem frightened. “You will feed the shadow,” the masked one said softly. He lifted his hand and the red blade of a lightsaber ignited before Plutt's eyes.

* * *

  
  
Rey swallowed the last bite of her food, then lifted the bowl and licked it clean. Her stomach was still rumbling. Pickings had been slim the last few days. A sandstorm had buried the Star Destroyer she'd been taking apart, and between defending her territory and excavating her prize, she'd returned to Niima Outpost with barely enough to keep from starving.  
  
Reluctantly, she set the bowl aside. She'd make it through another day. She always did. She might have to go without food for a day or two, if she didn't clear enough sand from the ship's hyperdrive tomorrow, but she'd done that before.  
  
Above her, a small shuttle raced across the sky, breaking atmo and disappearing in a bright flash of light.  
  
 _I could leave, too_ , she thought. She wanted to. Sometimes.  
  
If she was honest with herself, lately, the thought came to her more often than not. Nights on Jakku were cold and lonely, except on those occasions when they stopped being lonely and then they turned dangerous. Over the course of the last few weeks, three raiding parties had tried to clean out the wreckage of the AT-AT that she'd claimed as her home. Twice, she'd woken up to another scavenger attacking her, and just last night, she'd been roused from sleep by the tell-tale rattle of a desert snake who'd been ready to strike.  
  
She'd fought off the raiders, killed at least one of her attackers (the second one had run away, but he'd been bleeding badly enough that Rey wasn't sure if he'd survived the encounter), and eaten the snake. But the fact remained that loot was getting scarce, and the competition for it fiercer.  
  
She always woke up just in time to save herself, but the older she got, the more she felt as if her luck was running out. Whatever mysterious sixth sense had protected her so far, it only needed to fail her once for death to follow.  
  
 _And what good will I be to my parents when I'm dead?_ she wondered. _What if they come back, only to find my bones half-buried in the sand?_  
  
Huffing in annoyance, she got up and dusted sand off her trousers. Being morbid wasn't productive. She had work to do before she went to bed, and if she dwelt on the reality of her situation any longer, she'd just feel worse about it.  
  
She was about to pick up her bowl when a peculiar feeling stole over her. Whenever she woke up to danger, it felt as if she'd been pushed up through the murky depths of sleep by a low, rolling drumbeat that echoed in tandem with her heart. It was a sound she didn't hear but rather one that reverberated inside her and flooded her bloodstream with adrenalin.  
  
 _Run,_ that drumbeat told her. _Danger,_ it said.  
  
Rey didn't question it. She dashed inside and picked up her staff, then climbed one of the AT-AT's mechanical legs to get a better vantage point. She wasn't going to run away. This was her home. It wasn't much to look at, but it was hers. The only shelter she had. The only place she'd ever felt safe. She wasn't going to abandon it without a fight.  
  
A cloud of sand streaked across the desert. In the waning light, she couldn't see much beyond a bulky shape in front of it, but it was too large to be a speeder. An aircraft then, flying low across the dunes.  
  
She squared her feet and waited until the shuttle landed in front of her and two men disembarked. Both were tall and cloaked in black. The first one wore a metal faceplate with red carvings in its center. His shoulders were broad, and silver hair curled around the edges of his mask. Too bulky to be fast, Rey thought at first, but as she watched him stride across the sand, she revised that assessment. He didn't trudge through the sand like most people did, but walked with an ease that set off alarm bells in her head. There was something about him that set her teeth on edge. The air felt thicker the closer he came and the fine hairs on the back of her neck stood up. Her hands clenched around her staff.  
  
The other man wore a black helmet. He seemed no less imposing, though the muscles his companion openly displayed were hidden beneath a dark tunic. His presence was less oppressive, but Rey knew without a doubt that she was outmatched. These weren't scavengers trying to steal her possessions. Which begged the question, what exactly they were looking for.  
  
“What do you want?” she called out.  
  
The men stopped. “Are you Rey?” the one in the black mask asked her.  
  
The other one laughed. “She is Rey. Can't you feel it? She has seen the shadow. She can feel it in her bones.”  
  
Awesome. Two lunatics. There were rumors about cultist settlements out in the desert, but she'd always avoided them, and she was in no mood to deal with them now either.  
  
“Who are you? And what do you want from me?”  
  
“My name is Ren. This is Kylo. And we are here because my master wants to meet you.”  
  
“Why?”  
  
“He didn't say, and it is not for me to ask.”  
  
Well, that was just stupid.  
  
“Tell your master that if he wants to meet me, he can come by anytime. He obviously knows where I live.”  
  
And that was more disconcerting than she liked to admit. Maybe it really was time to leave; if not Jakku, then at least the AT-AT. She could find a new place in one of the smaller shuttles. Cobble something together. Something more sturdy, less exposed, something she could fortify against unwanted intruders.  
  
“We were told to bring you to him.”  
  
“And if I don't want to go?”  
  
Ren leaped. It was startling how fast he moved. One second he'd been standing next to his companion and within the blink of an eye he'd bounded up onto the foot of the AT-AT, clearing at least seven feet.  
  
 _How did he do that?”_  
  
“You can feel it, can't you?” he asked.  
  
Rey took a step back. “Feel what?”  
  
Ren crouched before her and took off his mask. Someone more gullible than Rey might have interpreted the gesture as a desire for Ren to appear non-threatening, but Rey wasn't fooled. Danger clung to him like engine grease. Rey's heart jumped into her throat. She wasn't sure what she had expected. His prowling movements, the suffocating aura that surrounded him, had her half convinced that whatever lay beneath the mask must be monstrous, but he looked human, middle-aged, handsome even, with straight features and long silver curls. Regal, she thought until she got to his eyes.  
  
The look in those eyes told her that she had to run. There was no mercy in them, no warmth, just the hard-edged glint of someone who believed himself to be invincible. She'd seen that look in the eyes of raiders stopping by to trade with Plutt. The ones that had everyone hiding in their tents and watching them warily as they walked by. She had seen it on Plutt, too, who was king of his castle, the undisputed authority within the outpost. Ren's eyes were like their eyes only burning brighter, the eyes of someone more dangerous than Plutt and all the raiders combined.  
  
 _I need to get out of here._  
  
“What are talking about?” she said stalling for time.  
  
“The shadow,” Ren told her. “You have touched it, haven't you? You can see it.”  
  
“I don't know what you mean.”  
  
She honestly didn't though the look in his eyes compelled her to agree with him. The only thing that could be described as a shadow was the darkness she felt swirling around Ren, and he had brought that with him. She'd never seen anything like it before.  
  
“You can do things, can't you? Things that no one else can do?”  
  
Rey felt cold. The drumbeat filled her head.  
  
“You can move things with your mind.”  
  
The terror of waking up to a shadow standing above her. The glint of a blade in the moonlight.  
  
“No.”  
  
Ren smiled at her. “Don't lie to me, girl.”  
  
“Master?” The second man, Kylo, appeared behind Ren and unclipped something from his belt that looked oddly familiar. “Perhaps it will be easier for her to accept her nature if I showed her?”  
  
Accept her nature? What the hell were they talking about?  
  
Ren stood and made room for Kylo. “Go ahead. But be quick. My patience is running out.”  
  
“I will be.” And then Kylo lifted the object and the red blade of a lightsaber split the darkness. Rey gasped. The gasp turned into a choked off scream when Kylo turned away from her and slashed the blade across Ren's chest.  
  
Rey jumped. So did Ren. Just in time to avoid the brunt of the attack, but the lightsaber cut a long, diagonal scar across his chest.  
  
“Foolish boy,” Ren sneered. He flung himself into a backflip and landed in a crouch on the sand below them. Another red blade appeared as he ignited his own lightsaber. “I knew you would betray me, Kylo. I've always known. Your heart has always been too weak to embrace the shadow.”  
  
Kylo jumped after him. “I convinced Snoke. That's all that matters.”  
  
The blades clashed. “You never convinced him,” Ren shouted. “He told me to keep an eye on you. To cut you down should you ever show your true colors.”  
  
Rey crept forward as the combatants before her fell silent and struck at each other. She had no idea why they'd turned on each other. She didn't know who Snoke was, or what he wanted with her, but this was her chance to run. She wouldn't get a better one.  
  
She turned and jumped onto the AT-AT's second leg and from there down into the sand. Digging her bag of emergency supplies out from under the war machine's gun turret only took seconds. She shouldered the bag and ran into the night. A last glance across her shoulder showed her nothing but two strobes of red light half hidden by the walls of her home. She scrambled up a dune, Ren's enraged scream spurring her on.

* * *

  
  
“I'm a Jedi.”  
  
Rey raised her staff and retreated until her back hit the hull of a spaceship. “I'm not an idiot. You're not a Jedi. You're a Sith.”  
  
Perhaps it had been stupid to run to the outpost instead of into the open desert where she could have found a hiding place in the wreckage of the lost fleet, but her feet had carried her here, and she'd made it all the way to the shipyard before Kylo had caught up to her.  
  
She'd hidden behind the landing gear of a derelict freighter that had been parked here for at least a decade, but Kylo had come straight for her, landing his shuttle and walking across the field as if she was a beacon on which he was honing in.  
  
“Things are not as they seem.” He took off his helmet and Rey was taken aback by how young he was. She'd expected someone closer to Ren's age, but he was somewhere in his twenties with long dark hair braided back, probably so it wouldn't get into his eyes when he wore the helmet. His nose was large. His ears were larger, and the dimples in his cheek didn't quite align. A scattering of moles dusted his face. He looked oddly compelling.  
  
“Here. Take it.”  
  
Rey looked dubiously at the lightsaber he held out for her. “What am I supposed to do with that? I don't know how to fight with a lightsaber.”  
  
“I'm trying to show you that I mean you know harm.”  
  
It had to be a trick. Maybe the thing would explode as soon as she touched it. Or he'd ignite it and run her through if she moved away from the freighter.  
  
“Why did you kill the other man?”  
  
Emotions flashed across his face. Impatience. Anger. Fear. “It's complicated.”  
  
“It doesn't look as if I'm going anywhere,” she said defiantly.  
  
“No, you have to go. You're no longer safe here. He will send others.”  
  
“Snoke?” she asked, remembering the name.  
  
“Yes.”  
  
“What does he want with me? I'm no one.”  
  
“You're special.”  
  
Rey laughed. She couldn't help it. She was a scavenger. She pilfered the carcasses of crashed starships for parts to sell. And she barely had enough food to make it through the next two days. Kylo must have made a mistake. Whoever he'd been sent to retrieve, it couldn't be her.  
  
“Listen to me,” Kylo said softly. He stepped into a faint circle of industrial light that illuminated the landing field. “Have you never done anything that you shouldn't have been able to do? Something you couldn't explain? Perhaps when you were frightened or in danger?”  
  
Again, the glint of light on the edge of a blade flashed before her eyes.  
  
Kylo must have seen some of what she remembered on her face because he nodded and stopped right in front of her. “It's okay. You can tell me.”  
  
Rey lowered her staff. “Someone tried to kill me a few nights ago. They snuck into my home, and I woke up while they were standing over me with a knife.”  
  
“What happened?”  
  
“I'm not sure. I...” he brow furrowed as she tried to remember. “I tried to block him and he... he smashed against the ceiling. I didn't even touch him, he just lifted off the ground as if he'd had a rope attached to his belt that had suddenly been pulled back.”  
  
She swallowed nervously and looked up at him. His eyes were warm and kind, a sharp contrast to Ren's. And there was understanding in them.  
  
“I feel things,” she confessed. “I know when bad things are going to happen. I felt you coming before I saw you.”  
  
“You are strong in the Force.”  
  
“Like you are.”  
  
He shrugged. It was a gesture that made him seem more human than anything else he'd done so far. Rey couldn't quite explain it, but the fact that he seemed as unsure about this as she was was somehow comforting.  
  
“Maybe with training, you could be as strong as I am. Would you like to learn?”  
  
“Are you offering to teach me?” She was intrigued by the idea, though the disappointment she felt when he shook his head was still unexpected.  
  
“I can't. I need to go back and come up with a believable reason why I had to kill Ren. But my uncle will teach you. His name is Luke Skywalker.”  
  
“You're joking.”  
  
A half-smile settled on his face. It was a smile that spoke both of fondness and a wealth of history that Rey could only guess at. “You've heard of him?”  
  
“He killed Darth Vader. He's a war hero. And a Jedi.” She paused, giving him an assessing look. “So you weren't lying? You really are a Jedi, too? And you're only pretending to be a Sith?”  
  
“What do you think?”  
  
Taking the question as an invitation, Rey stepped close to him. He was a full head taller than she and quite likely stronger. And then there was the whole Force thing to consider, but she didn't feel afraid. She stood close enough to feel the warmth of his body radiating against her skin. That same warmth was reflected in his eyes, even though his gaze was guarded.  
  
She didn't even realize that she'd raised her hand to touch his cheek until he stepped away from her and she was left with the memory of soft skin beneath her fingertips. Her stomach clenched. She frowned. Probably the lack of food.  
  
“I think you're telling the truth,” she said quietly.  
  
“Good.” There was a rough note in his voice, and, all of a sudden, he seemed reluctant to look at her. Instead, he retrieved a data chip from his tunic and pressed it into her hand. “There's a flight plan on here. It will lead you to my mother. Once you reach the base, ask for General Organa, she will take care of you. There's also an encrypted message. It's for her eyes only.” He looked at her beseechingly. “This is very important. You must not give this chip to anyone but my mother.”  
  
“I can't just leave,” Rey protested. Even if she'd almost convinced herself to run, the prospect of abandoning everything from one minute to the next was frightening. She didn't even know the people of which he talked. She didn't _know him_. She couldn't just leave because he told her to.  
  
“You have to.”  
  
“I can't. My parents won't find me if I leave. I have to stay here and wait for them.”  
  
He was still holding her hand in both of his. They were warm and large and gentle. But it was the pitying look in his eyes that made her wrench out of his grasp.  
  
“I saw the marks on the walls of your home, Rey. How long have you been waiting for them?”  
  
Tears stung her eyes. She widened them, refusing to let them fall. “It doesn't matter. They will come back for me.”  
  
For a long moment, neither of them spoke. Rey forced herself to breathe evenly. In and out. In and out until she felt calmer.  
  
“My mother can help you find them.”  
  
“You don't know that.”  
  
“I will tell Plutt to contact me if they come back.”  
  
Rey scoffed. “He'd never do it. He would promise to, and make you pay through the nose for it, but he'd forget about it as soon as you turned your back on him.”  
  
This time, there was not even a hint of warmth in his smile. “He won't. I give you my word.”  
  
Rey looked away. Her gaze found the top of the dune on the far end of the landing field. Beyond it lay her AT-AT. A shell of broken metal. A relic of a lost war. Abandoned and forgotten. Thousands of marks scratched into one of its walls. One for every day she'd lived in it.  
  
“Rey?”  
  
She clenched her jaw. She was going to leave. At some point between running away from him and arguing with him, she'd made up her mind. She'd never been this scared before.  
  
Warm hands fell onto her shoulders, and she fought the urge to lean back into the solid strength she felt less than a hand's breadth behind her back. She'd never leaned on anyone. She'd always stood on her own two feet. That wasn't going to change.  
  
“It's going to be okay,” he said softly.  
  
Rey stepped away from him and raised her chin. “I need a ship.”  
  
“Then let's find you one. How about this old...” His voice trailed off into a gasp as he turned to look at the freighter that was half hidden beneath a tarp. “I'll be damned.”  
  
Rey looked at the derelict ship. “What is it?”  
  
Kylo laughed in disbelief. “That's my father's old ship. I can't believe it. What are the odds?” He surged towards the loading ramp.  
  
“Are you sure? That's just an old Corellian Freighter. They used to be pretty common. No, that's not going to work. The locking mechanism is kind of tricky on this one, you have to hit the...” her voice trailed off as Kylo punched first the ramp release then the panel beneath it, “... panel below the button.”  
  
The hydraulics whined horrifically, but the ramp descended. Kylo didn't wait for it to hit the ground but jumped up into the loading bay, an expression of wonder on his face. Rey went after him. A smile tugged at her mouth as she watched Kylo rub the inner hull with his palm and coo at the blinking array of lights like a mother hen who'd just found a lost hatchling.  
  
“I never thought I'd see this old rust bucket again. Does she fly?”  
  
“She does. Though barely. Plutt has me replacing her wiring when I'm not too busy scouring the shipwrecks.”  
  
As scouring the shipwrecks had consumed her life for the past few weeks, she hadn't actually been on board the freighter for over a month, but Kylo obviously didn't care. “You should take her,” he said excitedly. “My parents will lose it when they see you arrive in the Millenium Falcon. Damn, I wish I could be there to see my dad's face.”  
  
“The Millenium Falcon?” Rey asked, and her stomach flip-flopped with a suddenness that left her feeling queasy. “You're telling me that _this_ is the Millenium Falcon?”  
  
Kylo grinned at her. It made her stomach feel even more strange. “It sure is.”  
  
“But that means that your father is Han Solo.”  
  
“Heard of him, too, have you?” He winked at her – actually winked at her, as if they were sharing a hilarious joke – before he turned and strode towards the cockpit.  
  
“This is just bizarre. Your father is Han Solo. Your uncle is Luke Skywalker. Your mother is a general, and you are a spy. It doesn't feel real. It's as if I went to sleep and woke up in a holostory.”  
  
Kylo leaned back around a corner of the corridor so she could see his face. “Do you need to lie down for a minute?” he asked with a cheeky grin.  
  
She scowled at him. “I'm fine, thanks.” Twirling her staff once, she felt the comforting, familiar weight of it in her hands. This was real. This was really happening. She followed him into the cockpit.  
  
“Who are you?” she asked as she resolutely pulled him out of the pilot seat and took his place.  
  
Kylo gave her an amused look but sank onto the armrest of the co-pilot chair. “I already told you.”  
  
“Who are you _really_?” she insisted with a steady look into his warm, brown eyes.  
  
His expression softened. “My name is Ben."

* * *

  
  
Poe sagged in his restraints. He carefully felt the edge of his lip with his tongue and tasted blood.  
  
 _Getting slow, old boy,_ he admonished himself. He should have turned his head with the blow when the First Order goon hit him, but he hadn't been quick enough.  
  
He jerked back when his torturer grasped his chin, but the chair to which he was tied didn't give him much room to move. The skin on his wrist was already rubbed raw from his struggles. Blue eyes looked at him out of a youthful face that was accented by sharp cheekbones and slicked-back red hair.  
  
“Answer my questions,” the man demanded. “If you don't tell me, I will have to hand you over to someone who will be less concerned about your well-being than I am.”  
  
“That's alright. I don't mind playing a bit rough.” He mustered a bloody grin before spitting in the man's face. This time he did manage to turn his head in order to take most of the force out of the backhand.  
  
The door swished open. A deep voice cut through the air. “That's enough, Hux. I'll take it from here.”  
  
 _Finally,_ Poe thought. He turned in his chair as much as he could to get a glimpse of Kylo Ren. Grudgingly, he had to admit that the black tunic and helmet were working for him. Coupled with his height, he could almost be described as imposing. Poe eyed the billowing cape that swished around him with a critical eye. _A bit much_ , he decided at last.  
  
“Oh, look who it is,” he mocked. “The wannabe Sith Lord. In person. I'm flattered by the attention, really.”  
  
“Shut up,” Hux snarled.  
  
“Oh, now don't feel rejected,” Poe said sweetly. “I appreciate that I'm considered important enough to get roughed up by a general, but Snoke's enforcer does kind of make me feel that I'm leveling up. No offense.”  
  
“You insolent cur.” Poe's vision went black for a full second with a blow to his temple, but he decided that seeing the outrage on Hux's face had been worth it.  
  
“If you're done taking your failure out on this prisoner, then Supreme Leader Snoke would like a full report,” Ren said with what Poe considered an impressively level tone. If Poe hadn't known better, he might have bought into the apparent apathy Ren was projecting.  
  
Hux sneered at both of them. “Yes, do see if you can steal the credit after I softened him up for you.”  
  
“Aw, don't be jealous Hux. I did quite enjoy our time together.”  
  
If Hux had had any Force-sensitivity whatsoever, the venom in his gaze would have stopped Poe's heart then and there, but as he didn't, it kept on beating while Hux and the stormtroopers who had guarded him stomped out of the interrogation room.  
  
“Must you always make things difficult for yourself?” Ren asked, only now his voice was miles away from apathy and filled with concern. He took off his helmet, and Poe blinked up into the face of his childhood friend Ben Solo.  
  
“It's funny you should say that,” Poe grumbled. “Considering that the message we got from you was 'Need to talk in person. Meet on Jakku. Let yourself get captured.' It's a bit hard not to make things difficult for myself with the kind of bar you're setting. And while we're at it; what took you so long? I've been here for at least half an hour. And let's not even mention that my reputation is taking a serious hit here. I let them destroy my x-wing. Do you know how hard it was to make that look believable? You guys can't aim worth shit.”  
  
“They're not 'my guys.' And I'm sorry. I was delayed.”  
  
“No kidding.”  
  
“Snoke wanted to know if I'd made any progress finding Rey.”  
  
“Well, seeing as she's helping your dad disrupt the First Order's ore supply right now, I'd say that you have to keep telling him what you've told him for the past two years. She's elusive. Just like those ore supplies will be pretty soon.”  
  
A smile tugged at Ben's mouth. “How is she doing?”  
  
“Luke says that there's nothing more he can teach her.”  
  
Ben's eyebrows shot up. “Really?”  
  
“If you ask me, he's a bit disgruntled about it. She keeps beating him when they're sparring,” He pursed his lips thoughtfully. “I bet she could beat you, too, now.”  
  
“You'd like that, wouldn't you?”  
  
“Yeah. I'd pay a good amount of credits to see you two going at it.” He winked. “I also think it would do you some good to get a real work out.”  
  
Ben's expression sobered so quickly that Poe wouldn't have been surprised to see someone dumping a bucket of cold water over his head. “We don't have time for this nonsense.”  
  
“Having fun is not nonsense.”  
  
“I didn't ask you to come here and get beaten up for fun.”  
  
Poe sighed. “Don't think that just because I'm letting you get away with it, that I'm not aware that you're being deliberately obtuse.”  
  
Ben waved his hand, and the restraints on Poe's wrists and ankles snapped open. Poe shook out his legs and rubbed the reddened skin on his arms until they stopped tingling. “Thanks. So what was so important that you couldn't tell us through the usual channels?”  
  
Ben clenched his jaw. Poe felt as if a stone had dropped into his stomach. He was familiar with the gesture. It didn't mean anything good. “I found out where the ore is going.”  
  
“That's great,” Poe said. Then he took in the look on Ben's face. “Okay, obviously that's not great. Where is it going?”  
  
“They're building a new Death Star.”  
  
“Fuck me. You cannot be serious.”  
  
“They're calling it Starkiller Base.”  
  
“We destroyed the last two. That should have seriously been enough to make even the most bone-headed lunatic realize that this is a failed project. What the hell are they thinking?”  
  
“Third time's the charm?”  
  
“Not funny.”  
  
Ben nodded somberly. The shadows of Alderaan lingered in his eyes. Poe remembered how often he'd asked Leia to tell them about her homeworld. Though he'd never seen it, Ben had been almost more invested in remembering it than Leia had been, writing down every story she told in his journal and adding to it over the years until he'd filled every page.  
  
“They've changed the design. They're using an entire sun as the power source.”  
  
Poe blanched. He tried to wrap his head around the amount of power such a machine would channel.  
  
“That's overkill. Even if you want to destroy a whole planet.”  
  
“Apparently, the firing mechanism allows for multiple targets.”  
  
Poe sat back down, then immediately jumped to his feet again and started pacing. “How close is it to completion?”  
  
“It's as good as done.”  
  
Poe stopped, aghast. “And you're only telling us about this now?”  
  
Ben balled his hands into fists. “I've only learned about it recently myself. And I'm not supposed to know at all. It's Hux's project.”  
  
“And Snoke didn't tell you anything about it?”  
  
“He likes to play us against each other. Thinks it keeps us sharp.”  
  
“He still doesn't trust you,” Poe said with sudden clarity. He smacked his fist against the wall. “You've been working for him for eight years. What the fuck does it take for him to let you into his inner circle?”  
  
“That's the second thing we need to talk about.” Ben's face turned grim. “He demands a sacrifice. Proof of my loyalty.”  
  
“A sacrifice?” Poe asked, not liking the sound of that.  
  
Something twisted in Ben's face. “He wants me to kill my parents.”  
  
Poe stared at him. “Fuck. Ben,” he said with sympathy.  
  
“Yeah.”  
  
“You need to get out. You can't stay here. You've already been here too long anyway. This mission was never supposed to go this long.”  
  
Ben laughed hollowly. “Wasn't it?”  
  
Poe couldn't meet his eyes. He'd hoped it wouldn't last this long. Everyone had, but the truth was that the possibility had always hung like a stormcloud above their heads.  
  
“I can't leave. I'm too close.”  
  
“You can't kill your parents, either.”  
  
“But I might be able to fake the death of one of them. If Snoke thinks I killed Han, it might be enough to convince him that I am no longer conflicted about where my allegiances are.”  
  
“Is that what he thinks? That you're conflicted?”  
  
“He claims that I have too much of my parents inside me. That I cannot fully embrace the dark side while I feel any attachment for them. He can read minds. That doesn't exactly make it easier to hide the real reasons I joined him.”  
  
“I thought you can block him from doing that.”  
  
Ben rubbed a hand across his face. He suddenly looked tired. “It's difficult to hide things from him. And creating fake memories that look like the real thing to him is even harder. It's why, even though I regret that you had to suffer Hux's attention for half an hour, seeing you like this helps me. I can use the memory of you bleeding and tied to that chair as a smokescreen to hide everything else that's happening right now. The first part is real, and Snoke will know that should he rifle through my mind. It makes things easier to hide.”  
  
“Alright,” Poe resumed pacing. “So we need to come up with a way to fake the death of your parents and destroy this year's entry into terrible-ideas-you-just-can't-let-go, a brand-spanking-new Death Star.” He sighed. “Why can't you ever ask for anything simple?”  
  
“It has to be Han,” Ben said.  
  
“You know? Like a puppy.”  
  
“My mother is Force-sensitive. She can prevent Snoke from finding her, but her presence in the Force is too strong. Snoke can sense whether she's alive or dead.”  
  
“Or a blow job.”  
  
The muscles in Ben's jaw shifted, and Poe honestly couldn't tell if he wanted to laugh or bite his head off.  
  
“Can't you be serious for five damn minutes?” he growled.  
  
“I am perfectly serious. You were a lot more fun when you were regularly getting laid.”  
  
“This is not productive.”  
  
Poe's mouth turned down. “Your dad is going to be harder to convince,” he relented. “He'll want to come charging in here and get you out whether you want to or not.”  
  
“He's not a strategist,” Ben said quietly, but there was something in his face, a kind of longing that had Poe convinced that there was a large part of him that wanted to get away from all this, that might even be hoping Han would drag him home. He couldn't blame him. Eight years pretending to be someone else had to take a toll, and a tiny, guilty part of Poe was surprised that Ben had made it this long. He would have never believed he'd had the discipline to hide how he truly felt, but the last eight years had proven him wrong.  
  
“Maybe we can kill two birds with one stone,” Poe mused. “How much do you know about this Starkiller Base?”  
  
“I have all the information you need.”  
  
“Conveniently located in one tiny data chip that I can smuggle out of here during my daring and heroic escape?” Poe asked hopefully.  
  
“Not exactly.” Ben suddenly looked towards the door. “Perfect timing.”  
  
“For wh–” the door opened. Poe instinctively went for his blaster, but only groped the empty air at his hip. The stormtroopers had disarmed him after his escape pod had been reeled in by the Star Destroyer's tractor beam.  
  
A single stormtrooper entered the room. Casting a glance across his shoulder at the empty corridor, he quickly closed the doors again and took off his helmet, revealing the attractive face of a young man with dark skin and short-cropped, black hair.  
  
The stormtrooper gave him a brief nod and from his complete lack of surprise to see him standing instead of tied to interrogation chair, Poe surmised that he and Ben knew each other as more than Snoke's enforcer and the First Order's cannon fodder.  
  
“This is FN-2187. We met shortly after I started my assignment. You can trust him. He's been assigned to Starkiller Base for the past six months. He has all the information you need.”  
  
“FN-2187?” Poe asked trying not to sound as bewildered as he felt.  
  
“Yes. Hi. You must be Poe,” the young man said and offered him his hand.  
  
Poe shook it. Assessing the firm grip and direct gaze, he decided that he rather liked FN-2187. “Got a real name?” he asked.  
  
“Not really. Names are for officers. We just abbreviate to Eight-Seven.”  
  
Poe looked from Ben to him and back again. “Seriously? Not even among yourselves? Ben. Buddy. Don't tell me that you've been addressing him by his serial number for the past eight years.”  
  
Ben blushed and averted his gaze, clearly uncomfortable. “If we agreed on a name, I would have to hide it from Snoke. And that's in addition to hiding that we know each other at all. When I think of him, I can't think of him as a person, I have to think of him as a soldier. You don't understand how careful I have to be. How much I have to hide.”  
  
Poe chewed on that for a moment. He wanted to argue the point, but FN-2187 subtly shook his head, and he decided to let it go for now. Meaning, he'd bring it up again as soon as they made their escape.  
  
“I take it you're coming along then?”  
  
“I can't stay here. Once I had enough information about Starkiller Base, I altered my transfer records to get reassigned to the Finalizer. I didn't have much time to do it. The base is close to being operational, and Hux has plans to destroy Hosnian Prime. I knew I had to act quickly, but that's why I couldn't be as thorough as I wanted to be. They're going to realize that someone tempered with those records pretty soon.”  
  
“He knows everything there is to know about Starkiller. Use the information. Find a way to destroy it.”  
  
“How much time do we have?”  
  
“Two days at most,” Eight-Seven said with an apologetic shrug.  
  
“Two days? _Two da_ – Okay. Okay. Let me think. This is big. This is– Fuck. Can we kill two birds with one stone here?”  
  
Ben picked up his discarded helmet. He stared at it with loathing. “We were thinking along the same lines. Talk it over with my mo– the general, and then get back to me through the usual channels. You need to go now. You don't have much time.”  
  
Poe opened his mouth. There were so many things he wanted to say that they clogged up his throat.  
  
 _Don't worry, we'll take care of it. Be careful. Keep your chin up. You can do this. We all can. Is there anything you need?_ _Are you okay?_  
  
None of them made it out of his mouth. Instead, he snatched Ben by the edges of his cloak and pulled him into a crushing hug. It broke his heart to feel Ben's body go rigid for a few endless seconds before he sagged against him. A warm tingling sensation spread through him, settling at his mouth and wrists.  
  
“Take care of yourself,” he finally managed to say.  
  
Ben straightened abruptly. “Don't worry about me.” his voice was oddly rough. Poe wished he'd gotten another look at Ben's face but he'd turned and donned his helmet before stepping away.  
  
“Finn will lead you to the hangar bay. He's going to pretend that he's escorting you to the medbay which is close by. Please try to act like a prisoner who's been through the wringer.”  
  
“It would have been easier for him to do that if you hadn't healed his lip,” FN-2187 said.  
  
Poe tongued the edge of his bottom lip that Hux had split earlier. It didn't hurt anymore, and the skin felt smooth and undamaged. Now that he thought about it, the tingling sensation in his wrists had disappeared as well. Turning his hands, he noted that the red marks were gone.  
  
“Aw, Benny. I didn't know you cared so much.”  
  
“Don't call me that or I'll put it all back.”  
  
“Don't think that's how it works.” Poe's smile was rather smug. He did enjoy getting a rise out of Ben, mostly because it was easy to do so. And, if he was honest with himself, it was reassuring that he _was_ still able to do it. It made him feel that the real Ben was still there and that Kylo Ren was indeed nothing but a mask Ben put on when needed. One that he could hopefully take off and set aside in the near future.  
  
Ben sighed, clearly exasperated. “Go. You have a ship to steal.”  
  
“Your ship, you mean?”  
  
“What are you talking about?”  
  
Poe crossed his arms. “If I'm going to steal any ship, it'll be your Silencer. Don't think I haven't seen that baby in action before.”  
  
Ben raised his chin, and Poe was almost positive that he was asking the heavens for patience. “My TIE only seats one.”  
  
“That's okay. The cute guy can sit on my lap. We'll work something out.” He winked at the stormtrooper who burst out laughing.  
  
“You were not kidding,” he said, and while he was addressing Ben he was indicating Poe with his head. “He really is a shameless flirt.”  
  
Poe shrugged. “I make no apologies.”  
  
“That's true,” Ben said and Poe had to give him props for the amount of sarcasm he sank into the words. “He never does.”  
  
“He doesn't have to,” FN-2187 said and much to Poe's delight winked back at him.  
  
Poe grinned. He couldn't help it. “I like this guy,” he told Ben. “I think we're going to get along great.”  
  
“I think we just might be.”  
  
Ben threw up his hands. “You're unbelievable. You both are.”  
  
“This is how I cope, okay? You just told me that the First Order not only built a gigantic Death Star but plans to wipe out all of Hosnian Prime in two days. And as if that's not enough, Snoke wants you to prove your loyalty by killing your parents. He still hasn't given up on recruiting Rey, even though she's been with us for the past two years, and on top of that, I'm in enemy territory and need to get past literally thousands of stormtroopers before I can steal a ship to fly out of here. No offense,” he added with a glance at Finn, who waved his concern away. “Let me flirt. With him, with you, or that sleek little Silencer beauty. It's the only thing I've got right now.”  
  
He hated to admit that he felt overwhelmed. Point him at a target and let him off the leash, that's where he felt comfortable. Everything he'd learned in the past half hour made him feel petrified. Too many decisions. Too much responsibility. This is so much bigger than he was.  
  
And it was bigger than Ben, too. And yet, Ben was stuck in the middle of it. Had been for the past eight years, with few respites to let down his guard and just be who he was instead of the enforcer he had to be in order to get closer to Snoke.  
  
Poe closed his eyes for a moment and took a deep breath. “Alright. I'm sorry. I'm not going to freak out on you. Let's do this.”  
  
“One more thing,” Ben said as they headed for the door. “Make sure to introduce Eight-Seven to Luke. He's Force-sensitive. I think that's one of the reasons he was able to throw off the brainwashing.”  
  
“Hey. Does that mean I'll get my own lightsaber?” Eight-Seven asked.  
  
Poe rolled his eyes. “Trust me. They're over-rated.”  
  
“You're just jealous that you don't get one,” Ben said smugly.  
  
“Lies. Nothing but outrageous lies. Come on FN-21–, you know what? Do you mind if I call you Finn?”

* * *

  
  
Han staggered backward. He clutches his chest. His legs crumbled underneath him. “Ben,” he gasped with a rough, drawn-out wheeze. His eyes were wide with shock. “Son.” He sagged against the wall behind him. His lips trembled. “Remember. Ben. Please. I need you to remember.”  
  
He broke off with a cough and curled in on himself. A long moment passed in which the air was filled with nothing but his ragged breathing. Finally, he seemed to gather the last of his strength to look up, beseechingly. “Remember that you are loved.”  
  
The words faded to a whisper. His face went slack. He sank against the wall, his eyes unseeing.  
  
“What is he doing?” Finn asked with an expression that fluctuated between appalled and amused.  
  
“He's dying. Dramatically,” Poe explained. He'd had to cover his eyes with his hand half-way through Han's death-throws for fear that's he'd burst out laughing otherwise. He still didn't dare to look at him.  
  
Rey shushed both of them and popped another piece of fried Nuna into her mouth. She was at the edge of her seat. She gasped with delight as Han suddenly surged upward as if he'd wrenched himself out of death's grasp through sheer willpower.  
  
Luke stared at him unblinking as if the scene playing out before him was too horrific to tear his gaze away.  
  
Han lifted his hand and groped for Luke's robes. “Ben,” he rasped. “I...,” he coughed again. “I forgiii... forgiiiiiveeee yooouuuuu.” Letting the last 'u' linger like the howl of a constipated wolf, Han flopped onto his side, his hand still outstretched toward Luke who acted as Ben's stand-in.  
  
Rey sat down her bowl and applauded.

Three pairs of eyes stared at her.  
  
“What?” she asked defensively. “It was very entertaining.”  
  
Poe and Finn exchanged a look. “She grew up alone in a desert. Not many distractions to speak of, poor thing,” Poe said knowingly.  
  
Finn grinned while Rey chucked a pillow at the back of Poe's head, which Poe ignored.  
  
Han sat up. “What do you think? Emotional enough? I can draw it out longer if you think–”  
  
“No,” Luke said a little too loudly. “That was quite enough.”  
  
“You sure?” Han seemed unconvinced. He got up and dusted himself off. “I'd really feel better if I could talk to Ben about my motivation for this scene.”  
  
“Oh, for goodness sake.” Luke waved his hands around like an overexcited bird. “This isn't you. You might be able to argue about the right price for a conductor coil for ages, but you get stoic and guarded when things get emotional. I don't want to see more. I want to see less.”  
  
“Less what?” Han asked clearly offended.  
  
“Less everything,” Luke said. “No talking. No moaning, or gasping, or wheezing. Definitely no howling. I want you to die a silent death. A dignified death.”  
  
“Don't be ridiculous. I can't just say nothing. He's my son,” Han argued. “If this were real, I'd try to get through to him all the way to the end.” He shrugged awkwardly. “I'd want him to know that I don't blame him, you know? Rotten things, he's had to do for Snoke. Could warp anyone's head.”  
  
Luke seemed at a loss for what to say. Poe felt as if someone had just pulled the rug out beneath his feet. He turned towards Finn, who had gladly shed his stormtrooper designation as soon as they'd been alone.  
  
“I didn't ask this while we were on the Finalizer because I knew Ben wouldn't give me a straight answer, but how is he holding up? I mean really?”  
  
Rey came up behind him, wrapped her arms around his waist, and settled her chin on his shoulder. He could feel the same concern for Ben's state of mind radiate off her that had been nagging at him.  
  
Finn rubbed the back of his neck and drew them further into a corner of the room while Luke and Han continued arguing about how emotive Han was allowed to be during his death scene.  
  
“It's rough on him,” Finn admitted. “There's stuff he has to do in order to maintain his cover that I don't think he'll ever make peace with. Snoke gave orders to kill anyone who gives refuge or aide to members of the Resistance. There are only so many times he can argue his case for not killing anyone before raising suspicions. There was a settlement on Jakku. Ben told me that an old friend of Luke's lived there, and Ben didn't get a chance to warn him or anyone else. It was a massacre. He's been different since he came back from that. Lost his temper a few times. Pretty Badly. Destroyed the Finalizer's entire secondary com array. A couple of officers ended up in medbay. He passed it off as frustration because Snoke has him running after Rey, which looks more and more like a waste of time, but...” He pressed his lips together. “Frankly, the faster you can get him out of there, the better. I don't know how long he's going to hold it together.”  
  
Poe felt as if someone was squeezing his heart. It throbbed painfully in his chest. “Does Luke know?” he asked Rey.  
  
Her arms tightened around him. “About his friend? I don't think so. About Ben? I'm not sure. He's been more broody than usual.”  
  
“I have a really bad feeling about this,” Poe mused.

* * *

  
  
Rey parried Kylo Ren's blow with the blade of her lightsaber. She grunted as the blades slid against each other with a crackle, and Ben put his weight into it.  
  
“How much longer?” she whispered.  
  
Ben swallowed nervously and chanced a glance over his shoulder. Another explosion tore through Starkiller Base, sending a jet of flame towards the night sky.  
  
“I think Han and Chewie had enough time to get back to the Falcon,” he replied.  
  
“There's no one watching us anymore.”  
  
“They're evacuating the moon. Good. That means there's too much damage. The base is going to collapse.”  
  
They jumped apart and circled each other.  
  
“How is this memory going to end?” Rey asked. She matched him step for step. Lunge, Parry. Back and forth until they were both out of breath. “What will you show Snoke when he looks into your mind?”  
  
Ben's gaze flickered over her face. His expression was inscrutable. “I'll show him how you beat me.”  
  
Rey grinned. She flicked her wrist, letting her lightsaber twirl once in her hand. “Think I actually could?”  
  
Ben held her gaze. “What do _you_ think?”  
  
Those words were all it took and she was back on Jakku. Testing him. Looking at him. Deciding to trust him.  
  
Her throat closed up.  
  
“I don't think you want to fight anymore.”  
  
She wasn't entirely sure why she'd said it out loud. Perhaps she hadn't been able to set aside the conversation she's had with Finn and Poe last night that had started with them sharing their worry about Ben crumbling under the pressure of his mission and escalated into plans to rescue him that grew wilder and more unrealistic as the night wore on. Perhaps that worry was exacerbated by waking up warm and comfortable, snuggled against Poe and Finn while Ben went to sleep and woke up alone knowing that emotional support could only find him in encrypted messages from his friends and family channeled through a relay of half a dozen com stations and transferred between at least four middlemen to minimize the risk of discovery.  
  
Whatever her reasons had been, she could tell from the expression on Ben's face that she'd hit her mark. He stopped in his tracks. His lightsaber fell to the ground.  
  
“Ben?”  
  
He blinked. His breath was coming in fast puffs of air. Too fast. Too ragged.  
  
Rey started running, but he sank to his knees before she got to him. Bracing himself on his hands, Ben desperately sucked air into his lungs.  
  
“Ben. Tell me what's wrong.” Wrapping her arms around him, she guided him into a kneeling position, cupped his face, and sent her awareness out towards him.  
  
She'd always found this part of her training the most difficult. Sharing your mind didn't come easy to her. It felt too vulnerable. Too exposed. But for Ben, she had to try.  
  
 _Panic attack_ , she realized with a start.  
  
 _Easy_ , she thought while she reached out to him with her mind. _I'm here. Just breathe._ She brushed gently against his presence in the Force and was dismayed when Ben internally recoiled as if she'd slapped him. She hovered in the void between them, worry gnawing at her insides.  
  
 _It's me_ , she thought. _I'm not going to hurt you._  
  
 _Three years,_ she heard him reply. _It's been five since I've seen my mother, and today was the first time in three years, I saw my dad face to face, and we couldn't even talk. We played out a script and faked his death. I pretended to kill him. Like I killed so many others. I can't go back. I can never go back. I can never tell mom what I've done._  
  
In the real world, Ben shuddered beneath her touch, and suddenly his body slumped forward. His arms wrapped around her waist pulling her into a crushing hug that left her with nowhere to go than to straddle his thighs.  
  
The snow fell around them while the sky burned.  
  
 _Don't leave,_ she heard him think, and tears welled in her eyes at the desperation in his voice.

Images flashed before her eyes. Memories. Fantasies. All jumbled together. Of her, back on Jakku, brandishing her staff to ward him off. That had happened. Her touching his face and him leaning into it, holding her hand against his face. A wish. Something he'd wanted to do, when, in reality, he'd pulled away.  
  
Poe sprawled on top of him. Both of them naked and laughing, tangled in sheets and looking younger than she knew them. A moment, precious and carefree, preserved in time. The two of them arguing and Ben storming off into the streets of a sprawling city. Then turning around and knocking on Poe's door to apologize. An opportunity he'd let pass by.  
  
Sitting with Finn in his quarters. Teaching him how to float a paperweight. The flash of pride he felt when Finn succeeded. The two of them outside on an airfield, looking at the stars, talking about places they'd like to see. Moments in time. Normal. Mundane. Without any agenda than to just be. Ben sitting at a desk, frowning as Finn tells him that he's been reassigned to a base in the Unknown Regions. Finn making a joke. Reaching for him. And Ben letting himself be caught. Leaning in. Kissing him the way he'd wanted to do but hadn't. A regret that lingered.  
  
And blood. So much blood. On his hands. In his soul. She sank deeper into his mind, and he gave no resistance. So much light in him, and so much darkness, and there, hidden beneath all of it, a piece of him that was fading, freezing, dying.  
  
Rey wrapped herself around that piece. She didn't know if it would do any good. This went beyond her training, but it felt right, and so she fed it with her own warmth. She reached for Finn, who was a bright star in the Force, and Poe, whose presence she barely felt but was drawn too like a compass needle to a magnetic pole regardless.  
  
 _I won't leave you_ , she thought fiercely.  
  
 _None of us will._ The words had an echo.  
  
“You have to. I have to see this through to the end,” Ben said roughly. He seemed to have collected himself. His arms fell away from her.  
  
“Not alone. It's too much to ask.”  
  
“I can handle it.” He stood up abruptly. His expression was shuttered.  
  
“The point is that you don't have to,” Rey insisted. She had slid into the snow when he'd moved and scrambled to her feet.  
  
“You can't stay here with me. And be glad that you can't. You wouldn't last a day.”  
  
“Stop being an ass. I'm trying to tell you that people care about you.”  
  
“They shouldn't.”  
  
“Why the hell not?”  
  
“Because you're all a weakness I can't afford.”  
  
Rey glared at him. “You're dead wrong there. And we'll prove it to you.”  
  
Ben indicated the light moving towards them over the dark treetops. “Your ride is here. You should go.”  
  
Rey picked up his lightsaber and tossed it at him. “You're the most bone-headed nerf-herder I know. And I know Poe Dameron.”  
  
She didn't wait for a reply. She walked to the Falcon as the ground beneath her feet shuddered. She stumbled. From behind her came a deafening roar. Her heart jumped into her throat, and she whirled around. A chasm had formed behind her. Ben stood on the other side of it, his face ashen and full of regret as he surveyed the distance between them.  
  
Tentatively, she reached out with her mind and found him in the Force, and the gossamer connection that now spanned between them. She examined the strands curiously. It took her a moment to realize what they meant, and her heart sped up when she figured it out. Following the connection, she felt the presence of two others in the dark, their warmth steady and familiar.  
  
 _We're not going to be another one of your regrets, nerf-herder_ , she thought.  
  
With a last look at Ben, Rey ran towards the Falcon where Finn, Han, and Chewie were waiting for her.

* * *

  
  
Starkiller Base had been destroyed. Hosnian Prime still existed. And with any luck, Snoke believed that Kylo Ren had killed Han Solo.  
  
Han had disappeared into his and Leia's private quarters the moment they'd returned from the mission. Leia had returned a few minutes later, once the X-wing squadrons had all been accounted for. She'd taken Rey aside and asked after Ben.  
  
Rey hadn't been sure how much to tell her and had glossed over much of what had happened in the forest. She didn't want Leia to worry any more than she already did, and until she'd fully figured out how the connection she'd accidentally forged worked, she thought it best to keep quiet.  
  
They'd fallen into bed, physically exhausted and mentally drained. Even Poe had had no objection to tabling all necessary discussion until they'd gotten a full night's sleep.  
  
Finn ended up in the bunk Rey shared with Poe, and Rey had no objection about that either. Even though he'd only been with them a short while, he neatly slotted into their tumultuous lives as if he'd always been there.  
  
Rey woke up to the door of the 'fresher sliding closed. Drifting towards consciousness, she was dimly aware of bare feet crossing the room, but her mind clung to sleep. She was warm and comfortable. Her stomach didn't ache from hunger, and she felt safe. She recognized Finn's presence beside her and shifted closer to his warmth.  
  
She didn't want to wake up, which made her all the more grumpy when Poe threw himself on top of them.  
  
“Gerr'off,” Finn groaned. Rey could feel him shove at Poe.  
  
But Poe only laughed, wrapped his arms around both of them, and squeezed. “Good morning, all my favorite people.”  
  
“Is he always like this first thing in the morning?” Finn mumbled.  
  
“Unfortunately.”  
  
“In that case, I'd prefer a room of my own.”  
  
“I am deeply offended,” Poe said mournfully.  
  
“You'll survive,” Rey grumbled into her pillow.  
  
“What the blazes are you doing here?”  
  
The sound of Ben's voice finally had Rey giving up on sleep. She raised her head and saw his confused face staring down at them. He seemed to be standing inside their quarters, though Rey could feel a great distance between them at the same time.  
  
More importantly, he was shirtless, and Rey decided that answering his question could wait until she'd looked her fill.  
  
“This is so weird,” Poe said. “I'm not even Force-sensitive.”  
  
“Can you see all of us?” Finn asked curiously. “Rey wasn't sure if the connection with Poe was strong enough."  
  
“Excuse you,” Poe said indignantly, cutting Ben off, “We've known each other since we were kids. Of course, our connection is strong enough.”  
  
Rey caught Finn's gaze and smiled. “I think he's calling dibs.”  
  
Finn nodded solemnly. “He did know Ben first.”  
  
“No. No, Finn. You don't concede to Poe. Ever. It's not good for him. Completely goes to his head.”  
  
“What? Is? Going? On?” Ben interrupted them. His gaze drilled into Rey. “What did you do?”  
  
Rey tried to push Poe off her as lying half-buried underneath someone else is never a good position to be in when arguing with a third party, but Poe, being Poe, refused to move.  
  
After a moment's struggle, she decided that it was too early in the morning to levitate him and flopped back onto the mattress. “I feel that I should preface this conversation by saying that I didn't do it on purpose.”  
  
Poe snorted. “Like he's going to believe that.”  
  
“It's the truth,” Rey snapped.  
  
“I believe you,” Finn said.  
  
“Thank you. See, this is what a supportive friend looks like. You could learn a lot from Finn.”  
  
“I was rather hoping I could teach him a trick or two,” Poe shot back with a leer.  
  
Finn smacked a pillow into his face. “You wish.”  
  
“This is a Force Bond, isn't it? You created a Force Bond.” Ben rubbed his hands over his face. “Why would you do that?”  
  
“It was an accident.”  
  
“Was it?” he snapped.  
  
“Yes, but I'm not going to say that I'm sorry about it. It's not good for you to be alone all the time.”  
  
“Don't you realize how dangerous this is? If Snoke realizes that–”  
  
“Oh, how did that go, by the way?” Poe finally relented and rolled next to Finn. “Did he buy it?”  
  
The three of them watched the internal struggle between arguing with them and answering Poe's question play out on Ben's face.  
  
“It did,” he finally said. Rather grumpily. “He wants to see me. The Finalizer is to rendezvous with his flagship in two days.”  
  
“Excellent. So that means you have two full days to eh... rendezvous with your friends.”  
  
Rey snorted. Ben looked as if he'd swallowed a lemon.  
  
Finn, who was fast establishing his position as the most reasonable one among them, placed his chin atop his hands. “Can you break the connection?”  
  
Ben's face went blank for a moment, and Rey knew he was looking inward, probing the Bond. “I don't think so.”  
  
“Then you might as well take advantage of it. It's been an eventful day. Come to bed. We could all use a few more hours of sleep.”  
  
Poe patted the pillow. “You know you want to.”  
  
Ben looked uncertain. “This is a terrible idea.”  
  
Rey grinned up at him. “Those are the best ones.”  
  
“Hey, that's my line,” Poe said.  
  
“If you want it back, come and take it, flyboy.”  
  
“Oh, you will regret making that challenge, scavenger.”  
  
“I think I'm rather going to enjoy it.”  
  
Poe lunged at Rey, who laughed and rolled with the attack.  
  
Finn watched them with a bemused look before he returned his attention to Ben. “Come on. Let's get some sleep. We can talk about everything else later.”  
  
Ben didn't move.  
  
“What are you afraid of? That Snoke will find out about this, or that you'll wake up alone.”  
  
“I w _ill_ wake up alone. Force Bonds fade in and out. They're not constant.”  
  
“Just another reason to take advantage of it while it lasts.” He held out his hand. “I know this is a lot. For all of us. We haven't had time to talk about it either, yet. So let's just take it one step at a time, okay? Even if it was unintentional, I think Rey is right. This will give us a chance to be there for each other.”  
  
“It's an opportunity,” Rey said from the other side of the bed. She had wrestled Poe underneath her. “And a chance. The question is: do you want to take it?”  
  
She knew by the look on Ben's face that he remembered the flashes of memory they'd shared on Starkiller.  
  
Slowly, he reached out and touched Finn's hand. His smile, the first one Rey had seen on him since the night she'd met him, filled her with hope.  
  



End file.
